Vampyres
This page serves as a source of information about vampyres as it is applicable to World 42 Role-Playing characters. Everyone is invited to add to this information. A Brief History Vampyrium The history of the vampyres begins on their homeworld: Vampyrium, a harsh world in the lower planes near Freneskae. Vampyrium is a world with blood red skies where even the moon is tinged a shade of crimson, it has strong predators and a myriad of docile prey species, and it is also where the famous bloodwood trees originated from. The vampyres themselves began as loose packs that roamed the skies, competing with each other for prey. Eventually these groups would each rise into eight distinct tribes, each with their own unique aspects and lineage: Alzeph, Drakan, Ghrazi, Jovkai, Myrmel, Pyrah, Shadum, and Vitur. Originally, the Ghrazi tribe held dominance over the others, due to their strongly combative and militant heritage, but that all changed when Zaros came to Vampyrium. Zaros looked upon the vampyres and saw potential, and introduced the finer points of culture to the vampyres; art, fine language, structured laws, and court systems, which he had learned from the Chthonian demons of the neighboring world of Infernus. Zaros chose one vampyre to guide from the Drakan tribe, and began to uplift the vampyres towards structured society. This one vampyre, after triumphing over the other houses in the civil war that ensued from his conquests, would eventually come to rule over the entire world Vampyrium, and the vampyre race for thousands of years after that: Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan, who became the lord of vampyrium, and established the Drakan line as the hierarchy over the other tribes, now renamed "houses" . Once the homeworld of the vampyres was put under his rule, Zaros then began to bring the vampyres over from Vampyrium to Gielinor, where they would join in with the empire of Senntisten. Gielinor Vampyres would arrive on Gielinor sometime in the early Second Age, along with their leader; Lord Drakan and his family. Throughout the Second Age they served Zaros and assisted in helping him achieve the size his empire reached. It would come to pass, however, that Lord Drakan began to resent the feelings of loyalty that Zaros's nature compelled in him, and Lowerniel's path in life took a violent turn. To escape Zaros and his dominion, Lowerniel sided with Zamorak, and after Zaros was banished, Lord Drakan turned his sights towards the neighboring icyene kingdom of Hallowland for unknown reasons, then began a vicious conquest of the region. During this war, Drakan abducted the icyene Queen Effaritay's human husband: Ascertes, and the city of Hallowvale surrendered. Through treachery, Drakan conquered Hallowland and renamed the region Morytania, transforming the city of Hallowvale into a blood-farming ghetto. Drakan's near 3,000 year reign has been marred by violence, including, among countless others, the Fall of Hallowvale, the Misthalin - Morytania War, the Morytania Campaign, the War of 164, and the Sanguinesti Liberation War. Eventually, Lord Drakan's reign was put to an end by the Myreque, an adventurer, and Lowerniel's own sister: Vanescula, near the very end of the Fifth Age. Vanescula herself, after Lowerniel's death, succeeding him as ruler of Morytania, betraying the Myreque and killing Queen Effaritay's own half-breed son: Safalaan, would then drink his blood. With Safalaan's icyenic blood flowing through her veins, Vanescula was sanctified against the River Salve, and through Haemalchemy she seeks to transfer this immunity to the river to all vampyres in Morytania, in order to invade and conquer Misthalin. The vampyre nation now sits, gathering its strength, until Vanescula's plans come to fruition. Accepted Lore This section addresses details in lore about vampyres that are widely accepted throughout the World 42 Role-Playing community. Everyone is invited to add to this information. Biology Vampyres are a physically and magically impressive race: originating from the lower planes like the demon races and the Mahjarrat, vampyres possess qualities that take them beyond the limitations of other races. *First and foremost: vampyres consume blood and nothing else. It is what they survive off of, they need it to live, and they cannot go without feeding or they starve; just as most other races need food to live. When a vampyre is injured, they need to drink blood more immediately than a healthy vampyre does. While drinking blood can speed up healing for any vampyre, some heal more quickly than others, with Lowerniel and Vanstrom healing almost instantly after absorbing blood. *Vampyres have control of their own forms, with their innate abilities of blood magic, and are able to transform into humanoid shapes (both resembling humans with vampyric traits or perfectly mimicking them). It was revealed this ability was taught to the vampyres by Zaros. It is unknown if vampyres can enter any other shapes besides humanoid (though Vanescula was skilled enough to appear as a harmless, little eight year old girl, showing she could manipulate her size, not just outwardly appearance). When vampyres transform their shapes, they do this in a matter of seconds, with swirling blood magic covering and hiding their forms while they change shape. *One very noteworthy trait is their ability to turn other races (only humans so far have been observed to be affected) into vampyres by infecting the victims with their blood. Impure vampyres born from other races are also able to do this, and the ability to spread infection is not just limited to true vampyres. Generally, it is accepted that "true-born" vampyres are superior in their natural abilities and physical strengths than the "human-born" vampyres, though that does not mean human-born vyres are not strong: Vanstrom Klause was the strongest known human-born vyre, with his claws and magical attacks being able to tear through and heavily damage players wearing even Barrows quality armor during the fight against him. Vampyre blood, regardless if it comes from true-born or human-born vampyres, is black. **As revealed in a podcast by Mod Ana: turned vampyres burn in the sunlight, though true-borns are not affected by it. It is for this reason the Drakans conjure a dense, dark cloud lair above Morytania to protect their human-born army from the sun. ***Some in-game evidence: when both Vanescula and later Lowerniel were stabbed by the Sunspear, neither of them burned to death, while the human-born vyre Mornid did. **Another rather odd trait of human-born vampyres is that if two human-born vampyres breed, the resulting child will always be human, not vampyre. There is no known explanation in lore that directly addresses this phenomena. Just as strange, if a true-born vampyre reproduces with a human, the offspring is, yet again, still a human: half-breeds of another race and a vampyre seem to be impossible in lore. **defeat of a particularly powerful vampyre by a human would require strategy and technical skill. Given the right tools, though, a human with good defenses could still fell a typical vampyre. ***The strongest vampyres are creatures to be feared and respected: Azzanadra, one of the most powerful known Mahjarrat, fled for his life from Lord Drakan. Regardless of the individual, the typical fully formed vampyre is strong enough to easily lift a human into the air with their wings, as seen in TLoV. *The only weaponry capable of harming vampyres is silver-based, as all vampyres, regardless of origin, have a weakness to silver. A vampyre at their strongest, even a human-born like Vanstrom, does not consider weapons such as the silvthril crafted, blessed and enchanted Ivandis Flail, much of a threat. For particularly strong vampyres, weaponry crafted from the wood of a blisterwood tree is the optimal choice for killing them. Blisterwood, however, is very difficult to obtain, as the only surviving tree left is heavily guarded at the center of Darkmeyer, and it took the efforts of Vanescula Drakan herself to give The Adventurer access to the tree, after an undercover attempt to blend into vampyre society and rise of the ranks by said human hero. The tree is also a very closely guarded secret, only the Myreque and the vampyres themselves know of the tree. **Vampyres have an innate mind-reading sense, which, although supposedly not true mind reading, it allows them to sense the intentions of their foes during combat. This makes a vampyre an incredibly difficult creature to harm; rendering most silver weaponry useless. Only silver weapons like a flail, where it is hard for the weapon strike to land where the warrior intends it to, can throw a vampyre off, and allow blows to be made. Blisterwood is unique in that the tree has intention: the plant, although it doesn't think anything specifically, intends to grow out in all directions it can, and to move its branches. Since the wood of the tree still lives after it is cut and fashioned into a weapon, its own intentions mask that of the wielder, allowing blows to be made with much more strength and accuracy than a flail, and the magic of the tree itself is harmful to vampryes (meaning silver doesn't have to be added into the construction of the weaponry: all three combat styles, melee, ranged, and magic can be used). **One other known weakness that vampyres have is garlic, though this by itself is not harmful, it only seems to irritate their senses slightly, so it must be used with other weaknesses to even be effective. *Vampyres are capable of magically holding their prey still: unable to move and fight back, though only for a limited amount of time. Vyrewatch do this when they tithe humans in Meiyerditch, and more powerful vampyres, like Lowerniel, are capable of literally grabbing prey from a distance with this ability and dragging the victim towards them. It is unknown how this works, but one theory is that it may have something to do with controlling the prey's blood inside their body (there are a few examples in lore where vampyres have been proven to have an affinity for blood magic, more information on this can be found in the Other Information section of this page). *Vampyres can willingly transform their bodies into a vaporous form, which they often do when they are injured. It allows them to escape if they are in mortal danger, and helps them survive grievous wounds. While in this state, they can envelope their foes and drain their blood to heal. While in vaporous form, only holy water can finish a vampyre off if they are injured in this state. *Human-born vampyres go through three stages of development, in which they progressively move closer towards becoming actual vampyres. The first stage is the juvenile, which, depending on how far they are into the stage, can be harmed by any weapon, or only by silver/blisterwood weapons, and they are fairly weak. The second stage is the Juvinate stage, in which the turned human begins to take on an even more vampyre-like appearance; they begin to develop special powers, and it is this stage that they are able to enter vaporous form (they can only do this when injured, not at will), and have small underdeveloped wings hidden under their clothes. Juvinates can only be harmed by silver/blisterwood weaponry. The third and final stage is the vyre: in which the human-born vampyre finally becomes a full fledged vampyre, with all the standard abilities (such as the mind-reading ability) and defenses. **Guthix balance potions can be used to cure turned humans, but only if they are in the Juvenile or Juvinate stage, once the vyre stage is reached, the process is irreversible. When Guthix balance is used, there is a 1/3 chance that one thing will happen: the vampyre will be cured, they will instantly die and crumble ash, or it reverts them to a bestial, blood-starved form, often called an "angry" vampyre (only Juvinates seem to be able to degrade to this stage, fully formed vyres do not revert to this state). Juvinates also seem to degrade into the feral state naturally, without the interference of Guthix balance, if they enter into blood starvation. When killed in this feral state, their bodies turn to ash. *Vampyres apparently let off a lack of scent to other races, as not even werewolves are able to smell them approach, although vampyres themselves are able to tell the difference between their own people and other races. *Not all vampyres have pale skin and red eyes. Vampyres are actually more diverse in skin and eye color than most people think. The known skin colors for vampyres are: pale whitish grey skin with pink mottling at certain points like the hands and feet, pure whitish grey, varying shades of red, and black. Known eye colors are red, orange, and white. *Human-made vampyres would be cured and reverted back to human if they cross the river of salve, removing any and all signs of their transformation and blood lust, completely curing them of what they've become. **True-born vampyres would not be turned into human, as they were born as a vampyre. If crossed they would remain their form as vampyre, only their lust for blood would become less, and would be more of a daily diet, like a human needing food when hungry. They'd need portable doses to stay sated, else they'd be vampyres again. That said, any vyre volunteering to take the cure likely has motivation to continue taking it ***This would be considered an abomination, to true-born vampyres as it changes their natural way of life and process, making it unlikely any would want to cross it. Lowerniel Drakan.png|Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan. Vanescula_Drakan_vamp.png|Vanescula Drakan, Lowerniel's sister. Ranis_Vampyre.png|Ranis Drakan, Lowerniel's brother. Vanescula_Drakan.png|Vanescula Drakan, in humanoid form. Ranis_Drakan_NPC.png|Ranis Drakan, in humanoid form. Count_Draynor.png|Count Victor Draynor Drakan, Lowerniel's exiled brother, in human form. Vanstrom Klause vamp.png|Vanstrom Klause, strongest known human-born vampyre. Vanstrom_Klause_human.png|Vanstrom Klause, in humanoid form. Vanstrom.png|Vanstrom's human disguise. Ivandis_flail_detail.png|An Ivandis flail, one of the few things capable of harming a vyre. Blisterwood tree.png|The blisterwood tree. Garlic_detail.png|Garlic, which vampyres find disgusting. Vyrelord.png|A vampyre male. Vyrelady.png|A vampyre female. Mist.png|A vampyre in vapor form. Vampyre_Juvinate.png|A vampyre juvinate male. Vampyre_Juvinate_female.png|A vampyre juvinate female. Vampyre_(level_61).png|A feral vampyre Juvinate. Vampire_juvenile.png|A vampyre juvenile male. Vampyre_juvenile_3.png|A vampyre juvenile female. Culture The culture of the vampyres, just as their history and their physiology, is as unique as they are, with a heavy focus on blood that has influenced it. There is nothing else quite like vampyre society on Gielinor. *Vampyre society is rigidly split between the human-born vampyres of Darkmeyer, and the true-born nobles who live in Castle Drakan, away from the turned populace in the city. **Those of the true-born nobility are the highest of the high in vampyre society; they have little care for the human-born vampyres under their rule, and only the most elite of the vyrewatch ever spend much time around the true-born nobility. Those of the true-born nobility enjoy luxuries that are not afforded to the human-born population outside of Castle Drakan: they seemingly have access to as much blood as they want (rather than it being rationed to them), they possess ownership of personal tithes and the occasional werewolf pack, and are served and protected by all the human-born vampyres of the city. ***The personal tithes the true-born nobles have access to are anything but normal humans; the vampyres have carefully bred them to suit their desires for certain tastes, and the children of these tithes are conditioned at an early age to behave a certain way. The tithes also have elaborate blood marks branded onto their skin: one standard blood mark branded onto the chest, and the house symbol of whichever house owns them is blood mark branded into their right arm. Not just for food, the tithes also effectively double as slaves. ***When a werewolf under the ownership of a true-born noble fails their master, the vampyres can be somewhat cruel to their charges. One punishment is the "cone of shame", which is meant to humiliate the werewolf. **True-borns have access to finer attire than the human-born populace: they sometimes wear gold-trimmed robes, which are quite durable and fine-looking in comparison to the much more drab robes of the city vyres. These stylish robes are only reserved for the nobles themselves, and the highest ranking vyrewatch. **The true-born nobles are not entirely what you would expect from vampyres. For one thing, they are a little less cruel than the human-borns in the city (Lord Mischa Myrmel encouraged more merciful treatment of his personal tithe, but only because it increased the quality of her blood), though that does not mean they do not hold racist views or preform cruel acts (such as the cone of shame, and talking about werewolves as if they are pet dogs). ***True-borns seem to hold contempt for predictably crude and cruel human-born vampyres. They are more impressed by less violent human-borns, who are not too full of themselves to be humble and serve their betters, and detest self-righteous human-borns that are arrogant when in the presence of the nobility. *Regardless of being true-born or human-born, the majority of all vampyres are fairly racist, and use many insults on other races such as: "meat-sack", "blood-sack", "food", etc. *Human-born society is much less privileged than that of the true-borns. Human-born vampyres are first allowed into Darkmeyer when they reach the Juvinate stage of development, and are held in the lower tier slum until they reach the vyre stage. Once this happens, the human-born vyre is allowed a house on the middle tier, and can begin to rise up in the ranks. **The rate that a vyre rises up the ranks varies, though qualities that speed up advancement are a prideful attitude, but also the willingness to work with and for other vampyres. Social visits, preforming favors, and cruelty towards humans are all acts that help in gaining reputation for advancing in rank. Once a vyre has reached Vyrelord status, they are allowed to live on the upper tier, just outside the walls of Castle Drakan. ***The ranks a vyre can hold, in ascending order, are: Vyreling, Vyregrunt, Vyrewatch, Vyrelord/Vyrelady, and Overwatch. The Overwatch is the highest ranking title that goes to a human-born vampyre; the rank gives them command over all the vyrewatch in the city, and the privilege of a large mansion on the upper tier. Vanstrom Klause and Mornid were the few known vyres to hold this esteemed rank. ***The higher up the ranks a human-born vyre goes, the more blood they are rationed. Vyrelords/ladies on the upper tier receive blood daily, while the farther down the ranks one is, the longer a vampyre waits for blood, with the Juvinates on the lower tier receiving the absolute minimum. The blood is not so much rationed directly, but rather a type of currency is given out for a vampyre to buy the blood they want: Darkmeyer notes. These slips of paper are the main currency in Darkmeyer, as it is the notes that purchase blood, not gold. *Coffins are the favored beds for vampyres. The higher ranking a vampyre is in society, often the better their coffin is; with the nobility in Castle Drakan possessing very finely crafted sarcophaguses to sleep in rather than coffins on the floor. *Vampyres have created many torture tools and devices centered around blood. One torture device is the bloodletter, which is used to imprison, brand, and humiliate vampyres who have preformed crimes against their own kind (depending on the amount of time spent in this implement, it is possible to die from bloodloss). Another example of blood in their design work is that they have crafted bloodlocks: special locks with tithing spikes on them that open when blood is drained into the lock. These locks may be tuned to take any blood, or to only open when a specific quality in the blood is detected by the lock (such as emotions or the blood of a certain individual). **For more important prisoners, vampyres have crafted special oubliettes, which are set into the floor with the lid being pressed down to seal the victim in. The lids are attached to chains on the ceiling, which can be used to raise or lower them. **The storage of blood is also important, and so very special containers are made to preserve the blood and keep it pristine and clean. These large blood stores are kept in the cellar of Castle Drakan, which the true-born nobility have access to. Typically, a butchering room is used to drain and harvest the blood from any carcasses that are brought into the castle. *Besides using their own claws and magical abilities, vampyres do not make use of many other weapons. They have been seen, however, using spears, which goes back to their tribal background. **Also dating back to their tribal days is the custom of tattoos: some vampyres will story their accomplishments with symbolic tattoos (the tattoos do not depict pictures, but are instead letters in vampyric script). Lord Drakan can be seen with such tattoos on his wings. *Vampyres seem to have some sort of spiritual reverence, as it has been confirmed that they have worshipped before in their past (the founder of House Vitur being held as a god-like figure and possibly Zaros being worshipped later when the vampyres came under his banner). It is unknown what beliefs they have specifically today, though it may be a reverence to their ancestors (they do not worship Zamorak). The vampyres have a special altar in Darkmeyer, which for some reason is stylized after a gargoyle. *When the vampyres came from Vampyrium, they brought bloodwood trees along with them, which spread out across various areas of Gielinor, where there was sufficient amounts of bloodshed in the soil to nurture them. One of these trees can be found in the heart of Darkmeyer, not far from the blisterwood tree. *The "symbols" of the eight noble houses are actually the first letter of the house name in the vampyric language, each house using the letter as the symbol of their house. This means that the House Drakan blood drop symbol is actually the letter D in vampyric. Castledrakan.png|Vampyric architecture. House_Drakan_outfit_equipped.png|House Drakan robes, which only the true-born nobility and the highest ranking vyrewatch may wear. Darkmeyer_disguise_equipped.png|The less stylish robes worn by the human-born populace. Defiant_old_man.png|An elderly personal tithe. Frightened_man.png|A younger male personal tithe. Protective_girl.png|A female tithe. Catatonic_child.png|A child tithe. Werewolf_(The_Lord_of_Vampyrium_-_humiliated).png|A werewolf, wearing the cone of shame. Lowertiercoffin.png|A coffin on the lower tier of Darkmeyer. Middletiercoffin.png|A middle tier coffin. Uppertiercoffin.png|An upper tier coffin. Vampyresarcophagus.png|A sleeping sarcophagus in Castle Drakan. Bloodletter.png|A bloodletter. Vampyreobliette.png|A vampyre oubliette. Bloodcontainer.png|A blood container. Butchery_table.png|A butchery table, used to harvest blood from the hanging carcasses in the butchering room. Vampyrespearrack.png|A vampyre spear rack. Vampyric_altar_updated.png|The vampyric altar in Darkmeyer. Bloodwood_tree.png|A bloodwood tree, which originated from Vampyrium. JIbhgG8.png|Art of the eight house motifs. True-Born Houses There were once eight great houses on Vampyrium; eight family lines that comprised the ruling body of their homeworld, and although not every single one of them remain, nearly every true-born vampyre today can trace their heritage back to at least one of them. Each house had their own individual customs, and their own particular palate for a certain flavor of blood. As stated elsewhere on this guide: true-borns have more highly refined palates than human-born vampyres, as they are able to taste flavors that are influenced in the blood by the emotional state of the victim. House Alzeph House Alzeph vampyres enjoyed spicy blood with a grainy texture, which was created when their prey felt emotions of loathing and moral disgust. Due to these being emotions that are mainly held by sentient beings, house Alzeph cannibalized other vampyres to make the other houses have these emotions towards them. Due to this practice, when Lord Drakan established his house as the main ruling body, he genocided them, and the Alzeph were supposedly all wiped out. Today, some Alzeph vampyres may still yet live within the true-born nobility, hiding their true lineage from the others. House Drakan House Drakan is the main ruling body of all the other houses, with their aristocracy being established by Lowerniel on Vampyrium. Those vampyres of House Drakan have a sweet tooth, as they enjoy blood that has a very sweet flavor to it. To get this blood, the victim has to feel safe, optimism and hope, and so the prey has to be killed unawares before they know they are being stalked. If the prey catches on, they are allowed to escape and resume their calm feelings before another attempt is made. Today, the only known surviving member of House Drakan is Vanescula herself, there are no other vampyres of House Drakan that we know of. House Ghrazi The vampyres of House Ghrazi are of a proud warrior heritage: they were famed for being the most vicious of all the tribes, and prided themselves on their ability to fight rather than stalk. Fighting was a integral part of their heritage, and they only hunted the most aggressive prey of Vampyrium. They enjoyed the overwhelmingly strong taste that aggression added into the blood they drank (an acceptable metaphor would be that the Ghrazi drank the blood equivalent of hard liquor), and they believed that they were ingesting the strength of all they ate when they did this. Such was their battle prowess that Lord Drakan did not confront Lord Malachi Ghrazi directly when he began his conquest over the other houses, but instead resorted to poison to kill the Ghrazi leader. Due to their more aggressive nature, the Ghrazi transitioned poorly into the new civilized society Lord Drakan was forming on Vampyrium, and so the vast majority of the Ghrazi were wing-clipped and forced to serve as pack animals in blood hunts. Those of the Ghrazi line who were able to transition into civilized society likely kept their noble status, though with their house largely diminished in number. This house very likely still exists on Gielinor today; Lord Drakan made sure their line continued, as he valued their ferocity in battle. House Jovkai The vampyres of House Jovkai are of more refined origins than the majority of their kin: they enjoy a bittersweet taste with a lingering finish in the blood they drink, which can only be gained when the prey is in a loving and caring emotional state. As such, the vampyres of House Jovkai treated their prey with a care and tenderness (their food sources were likely domesticated), allowing them to feel safe and cared for, before mercilessly slaughtering their victims behind closed doors. Today, House Jovkai is alive and strong. House Myrmel House Myrmel is comprised of vampyres that enjoy a light and aromatic blood, imbued with an effervescent fizz. To get this kind of blood, the prey must be filled with feelings of intense regret, and be pumped with adrenaline from the fight or flight reflex. Generally this is done by killing one of the victim's loved ones first, and allowing the other victims to escape, then hunt them down afterwards. The process for acquiring this blood is very wasteful, so Lord Drakan decreed that it should only be practiced on special occasions, with the primary victim's blood used to feed the lower-born vyres. Today, House Myrmel is still going strong. House Pyrah The members of House Pyrah were described as "loathsome carrion feeders", as they enjoyed a very complex and rich flavored blood, which had a greasy texture and foul smell, created by feelings of grief. The process to make this blood, however, was very abhorrent, as multiple victims of a single prey group were held together in close confines, where they were held until they died of natural causes. The weakest would die first, and the others would be left to grieve as the piles of bodies started to add up around them. The bodies would be left to ferment for a while before the blood was harvested (hence the greasy texture and foul smell). For these disgusting practices, Lord Drakan had House Pyrah destroyed. Some may have escaped this genocide, and might live in secret to this day among the vampyre nobility; hiding stores of rancid blood elsewhere in Morytania where none may know. House Shadum House Shadum enjoy their blood from creatures that are along the lines of loyal and submissive, which creates a salty-sweet flavor combination. In the past on Vampyrium, they had enslaved another sentient race who wanted their protection, and agreed to servitude, which was where House Shadum received their main source of loyal/submissive blood. Today, the enslaved creatures left on Vampyrium may be either very rare, or extinct since they were left behind, while House Shadum left for Gielinor. Today, it is seen that one of the members of House Shadum has ownership over a werewolf pack, which is where they may get their supply of loyal/submissive blood. House Vitur House Vitur vampyres, along with a few other sentient beings of Vampyrium, were extremely devoted towards the dead founder of House Vitur, whom they believed to be a god. From the other sentient creatures that worshipped, house Vitur collected blood that was imbued with feelings of devotion, awe, and wonder, which left an incredibly fresh and pure taste in the blood, albeit it was rather bland in flavor. Today, House Vitur is alive and going strong, and any of their lineage would likely jump at the chance to collect blood from an active worshipper of any god. Screenshot (103).png|Symbol of House Alzeph. Housedrakanmotif.png|Symbol of House Drakan. Screenshot (101).png|Symbol of House Ghrazi. Screenshot (99).png|Symbol of House Jovkai. Screenshot (98).png|Symbol of House Myrmel. Screenshot (104).png|Symbol of House Pyrah. Screenshot (100).png|Symbol of House Shadum. Screenshot (105).png|Symbol of House Vitur. Naming Conventions Vampyres have naming structures that focus on a wide range of letters and pronunciations, making it hard to follow any particular trend, although many vampyre names are based off of real-life Romanian origins. One noticeable thing, however, is that most vampyres have first, middle, and last names (some lack middle names, others do not). One very important thing to note is that no turned vampyre seems to retain their former name prior to turning, and instead choose a new vampyre name to suit their new racial status. A useful and lore-friendly way to create a unique name (for almost any race) is to mix and mash tidbits of other names, or make slight modifications (addition or subtraction of letters) to create your own. An example would be Sanguinius (adding an I at the end of Sanguinus to modify the name), or Valentiscula (a combination of Valentina and Vanescula). Here is a list of nearly all vampyre names mentioned in lore, see if you can create something unique out of them! *Male First/Middle Names: Artyom, Dessous, Draynor, Grigan, Grigori, Lowerniel, Malachi, Malak, Misdrievus, Ranis, Ruantun, Sanguinus, Simeon, Solomon, Tenebra, Tytn, Vanstrom, Vergidyad, Victor, Zigfrid. *Female First/Middle names: Anastasia, Masha, Mornid, Nadezhda, Sascha, Valentina, Vanescula. *Last names: Alzeph, Bloodmortis, Draemus, Drakan, Ghrazi, Gorthaur, Jovkai, Kaust, Kaninus, Klause, Lamescus, Myrmel, Mortshade, Noctantine, Pyrah, Plaguemanst, Remanis, Shadum, Vakan, Varnis, Vitur. *Player Vampyric Names (these are the list of names the player chooses from during The Branches of Darkmeyer): Debated Lore This section addresses details about vampyres that are still subject to speculation and discussion either because of conflicting information in-game or because use of the detail in roleplay creates an unfair scenario (usually involving overpowering or another common roleplay problem). *Vampyres are believed to be biologically immortal; never dying from old age, and only succumbing to injuries. This is most likely true, as Lowerniel himself is over 8,000 years old, and his power and youth did not wane at all during his time as ruler, before his overthrow and death at the hands of Vanescula. *It is a popular belief among role-players that vampyres from certain houses or social groups have their own unique scents, which help identify them from vampyres of other houses, though there is no canon in lore that ever states this. *Vampyres might be the origin of black metal equipment (the origin of it has never been stated in lore), as vampyre Juveniles and Juvinates, if cured, will sometimes reward those who cured them with various black metal weapons and armor (they are not Kinshra, so there is confusion as to how they would possess these items in the first place). Lord Drakan himself is also seen in armor that is black, but it is unknown if this is black metal itself or some other dark colored, unnamed metal. Common Mistakes This section addresses traits that inexperienced role-players often bestow their vampyre characters but that aren't actually seen in vampyres on Runescape. *The vampyres of RuneScape are unique, and stand out drastically from the vampires in pop culture. Do not mix pop culture characteristics with your vampyre character, as this conflicts heavily with the unique take JaGex has done with the vyres of lore. **One example is that a group of vampyres has never been referred to as a coven in lore, "covens" is a player given name, while in lore a family of vampyres is referred to as a house: case in point, House Drakan. *Vampyres are not entirely evil, and do not perform evil acts simply for the sake of being evil. Vampyres, just as any other race, have the potential for good or ill, but Zaros states their need for blood often comes into conflict with their finer points when it comes to their interactions with other races. *Normal vyres are not corrupted icyene. An Icyene that becomes a vampyre becomes the much more animalistic Wyrd. *Vampyres rarely use any weapons besides their own claws and magical abilities, as most weaponry compared to that is inferior. The only known weapons that vampyres use besides this are spears, which date back to their tribal heritage on vampyrium. *Vampyres can wield blisterwood weaponry, as evidenced by Lord Drakan. *Vampyres are not undead; they are an actual, living, breathing race, and are not affected by items like the Salve Amulet, which is meant to specifically be effective against the undead. *It has long been thought that vampyres have the slight ability to influence the weak-minded, though rather than a power, this may simply be the fact that they can be very manipulative, and may not be any inherent magical ability. *From the quest The Lord of Vampyrium, some might think that there are some vampyres like Lowerniel that are much larger than the average human-sized vampyre. This is false, there are no special breeds of vampyres that are larger or smaller in size than the true vyre, all normal vampyres are standard in size: Lord Drakan was unique. As revealed in a quest Q&A, Lowerniel achieved his large size and much of his omnipotent abilities from his time spent interacting with the Stone of Jas, which he gained possession over after successfully seizing the icyene kingdom of Hallowland (and because of this, it is thought that the stone was the main reason for his invasion in the first place). Other Information *The origin (and acceptance in lore, due to them coming off of the Soloman's Store) of bloodpouncers, a winged, vampyric cat-like creature, is debated. Some think them to come from Vampyrium, others think they are turned skypouncers. Regardless, it is said that some vampyres fear bloodpouncers, as they feed on vampyre blood. *The Salve River Barrier is a magical wall created by Saradomin, which specifically blocks vampyres, and certain Zamorakian creatures, from crossing over into and out of Morytania. One werewolf described his failed attempt in crossing as "incredibly painful". If a vampyre does somehow cross the Salve, even the most powerful vampyres are left in an incredibly weakened state, and unable to return to their former strength unless they manage to cross back over into Morytania. Count Draynor, Lord Drakan's brother, was weakened so badly that he was no stronger than a human. **For a vampyre to cross and remain unaffected, the Salve barrier would have to be brought down, or the vampyre rendered immune to it. If a vampyre drinks icyene blood, however, it sanctifies them against the Salve, allowing them to cross. Vanescula Drakan did this when she drank the half-breed icyene Safalaan's blood, and intends to spread this immunity to the Salve to other vampyres when she learns how to do so, but this has not yet come to pass. **According to Xenia, there are no more vampyres across the Salve: Count Draynor was the very last. *During the Legacy of Seergaze, it is revealed that when a fully formed vyre dies, their corpses become as hard as iron and as light as wood. If the afflicted vampyre had not been evil before contracting vampyrism then their souls will be tormented by their evil deeds, and the only way for the soul to rest peacefully is for their remains to be cremated. *For a long time, vampyres have been thought to be the origin of blood magic. There was never much evidence to support this until the lore story The Old Blood, in which Lord Drakan demonstrated blood magic to the other upper class races of Senntisten (Mahjarrat, Chthonians, etc). The other races were unfamiliar with it, and Lowerniel stated it would take them a year to achieve the simple concepts of it, while blood magic had always been a part of him, and came as naturally to him as breathing. Likewise, in Lord Drakan's study there was a tome dedicated entirely to blood magic. *One trait that true-born vampyres have over human-borns is that true-borns have a much more highly refined palate. They are able to go beyond the taste of the blood types, temperatures, and freshness of the blood they drink: they can literally taste the emotional state of a victim during the time of their death or when the blood is drank from a still living victim (what race the victim is does not determine the emotional flavor state). They do not taste the emotions themselves, but the emotional state of the victim transposes a certain taste in their blood. **'Loathing and disgust' produces blood that is spicy, and has a grainy texture. Favored by House Alzeph. **'Hope and optimism' produces an intensely sweet flavor. Favored by House Drakan. **'Hate and aggression' produces a very strong and overwhelming flavor (a fair comparison is that it is the blood equivalent of hard liquor, without the alcoholic effect). Favored by House Ghrazi. **'Love' produces blood that is bittersweet with a lingering finish. Favored by House Jovkai. **'Regret', coupled with the adrenal response of fight or flight, produces an aromatic blood with an effervescent fizz. Favored by House Myrmel. **'Mourning and grief', along with a period of stagnation in the corpse after death, produces a foul smelling and greasy blood (the flavor, however, is very complex and rich). Favored by House Pyrah. **Feelings of loyalty and subservience produce a flavor that is both salty and sweet. Favored by House Shadum. **'Awe, wonder, and respect' produce a blood that is incredibly fresh and pure, although the flavor is bland. Favored by House Vitur. *Apparently, the blood of children lacks flavor, according to Lord Alexei Jovkai, and they need time to mature for the flavor in their blood to become more prominent. Bloodpouncer Stages.png|The bloodpouncer. Salve Barrier Theory.png|A map of the Salve barrier, as described in a podcast. A vampyre should be able wander anywhere East of the barrier. Vyre_corpse_detail.png|A human-born vampyre corpse, which must be cremated to release the trapped soul. Rising_Vyre.png|A dead human-born vyre's soul, released to pass on after cremation. Bloodmagictome.png|Lord Drakan's tome on blood magic. Media Lowerniel Drakan.png|Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan. Vanescula_Drakan_vamp.png|Vanescula Drakan, Lowerniel's sister. Ranis_Vampyre.png|Ranis Drakan, Lowerniel's brother. Vanescula_Drakan.png|Vanescula Drakan, in humanoid form. Ranis_Drakan_NPC.png|Ranis Drakan, in humanoid form. Count_Draynor.png|Count Victor Draynor Drakan, Lowerniel's exiled brother, in human form. Vanstrom Klause vamp.png|Vanstrom Klause, strongest known human-born vampyre. Vanstrom_Klause_human.png|Vanstrom Klause, in humanoid form. Vanstrom.png|Vanstrom's human disguise. Ivandis_flail_detail.png|An Ivandis flail, one of the few things capable of harming a vyre. Blisterwood tree.png|The blisterwood tree. Garlic_detail.png|Garlic, which vampyres find disgusting. Vyrelord.png|A vampyre male. Vyrelady.png|A vampyre female. Mist.png|A vampyre in vapor form. Vampyre_Juvinate.png|A vampyre juvinate male. Vampyre_Juvinate_female.png|A vampyre juvinate female. Vampire_juvenile.png|A vampyre juvenile male. Vampyre_juvenile_3.png|A vampyre juvenile female. Castledrakan.png|Vampyric architecture. House_Drakan_outfit_equipped.png|House Drakan robes, which only the true-born nobility and the highest ranking vyrewatch may wear. Darkmeyer_disguise_equipped.png|The less stylish robes worn by the human-born populace. Defiant_old_man.png|An elderly personal tithe. Frightened_man.png|A younger male personal tithe. Protective_girl.png|A female tithe. Catatonic_child.png|A child tithe. Werewolf_(The_Lord_of_Vampyrium_-_humiliated).png|A werewolf, wearing the cone of shame. Lowertiercoffin.png|A coffin on the lower tier of Darkmeyer. Middletiercoffin.png|A middle tier coffin. Uppertiercoffin.png|An upper tier coffin. Vampyresarcophagus.png|A sleeping sarcophagus in Castle Drakan. Bloodletter.png|A bloodletter. Vampyreobliette.png|A vampyre oubliette. Bloodcontainer.png|A blood container. Vampyrespearrack.png|A vampyre spear rack. Vampyric_altar_updated.png|The vampyric altar in Darkmeyer. Bloodwood_tree.png|A bloodwood tree, which originated from Vampyrium. JIbhgG8.png|Art of the eight house motifs. Screenshot (103).png|Symbol of House Alzeph. Housedrakanmotif.png|Symbol of House Drakan. Screenshot (101).png|Symbol of House Ghrazi. Screenshot (99).png|Symbol of House Jovkai. Screenshot (98).png|Symbol of House Myrmel. Screenshot (104).png|Symbol of House Pyrah. Screenshot (100).png|Symbol of House Shadum. Screenshot (105).png|Symbol of House Vitur. Bloodpouncer Stages.png|The bloodpouncer. Salve Barrier Theory.png|A map of the Salve barrier, as described in a podcast. A vampyre should be able wander anywhere East of the barrier. Vyre_corpse_detail.png|A human-born vampyre corpse, which must be burned to release the trapped soul. Rising_Vyre.png|A dead human-born vyre's soul, released to pass on after cremation. Bloodmagictome.png|Lord Drakan's tome on blood magic. Vyrewatch Concept Art.png|The concept art of a female vyrewatch, depicting both its humanoid and vampyre forms. Bwood polearm.png|An example of a blisterwood weapon; the wood in the shaft is the blisterwood, while the metal pieces are silver. Vampyre Evolution.png|This shows how a vampyre evolves once it is created from a bipedal creature, which, in this case, is a human. Artist's Darkmeyer.png|The original graphic layout of Darkmeyer and its three tiers of social status. Vanstrom concept art.jpg|Concept art of Vanstrom Klause. Draynot.png Category:Vampyre Category:Lore Category:Races Category:Guides Category:Morytania